Glad to see that I should have enough time to deal with the dress fittings after it (finally) comes in.

Sounds like you did an awful lot of work on those favors! I bet they will be a big hit. I love the wine bottle idea for the centerpieces! I just ordered mine from the florist...LOL.

Our favors are somewhat put together, though we realized we're most likely going to have to order a few more. I added some people to the invitation list and I am nervous that we won't have enough. We ordered these adorable personalized stone coasters from etsy.com. I just love them, and want them in every room of my house! We had a heck of a time finding little boxes to put them in, but we lucked out at Michael's in the baking section. Turns out these little cookie boxes are just the right size. :)

Oohhhh post a pic of them, they sound great!! I will try to take some pics of our favors and a flower less centerpiece! We will have flowers in the wine bottles, a purple hydrangea heads.

I'm really on count down now! 53 days! My mom is coming home in 5 weeks, the wedding is 7 weeks away and my MOH is due with her second child in 10 weeks! I'm praying he does not come early! But I can't wait to meet him!

"Other" Dresses
 

Hi Ladies,

What are you girls all wearing for your rehersal dinners?

What about engagement shoots?

Bridal Shower?

Bachelorette?

I just ordered this dress...I was planning on wearing it to my rehersal dinner, but think I will also wear it for my engagement shoot since we are doing it in the spring and it will be WARM outside!

Attachment 362073

Oh I want to see your favors!!! We were stuck on what to do for favors for a long time. Scott's cousin did a candy buffet last summer which I thought was a great idea and I wanted to do that, but it wasn't really much of a hit with the adults, and it was just full of kids all night sticking their hands in the candy bowls and eating and grabbing some more. My friend's cousin also did one last year and she said it was great! So it depends on the crowd I guess! We also thought we would give each person a scratch lottery ticket, because who doesn't like scratch tickets? I've seen ideas for this online, to put a ticket in an envelope with a note saying "We hope you're as lucky in life as we are in love" Scott looked into it last night and we can buy a roll of tickets, but each roll is $300. You can get 300 $1 tickets, 100 $3 tickets, etc. We are already spending close to $55 per person for food, corkage fee, and midnight lunch, so didn't want to spend that much on favors. Another friend just did a donation in everyone's name to the Canadian Cancer Society, and I think that was a great idea too.

After all that, I think we've decided we are making homemade wine. Scott has made wine kits before and he has all the stuff to do it now. It's relatively cheap as a gift per adult or per family, and we can put make personalized wine labels for them! He asked the hotel (reception venue) yesterday if that would be allowed, and they said they're fine with it as long as it's not opened at the venue. We will make sure to let people know to please just take one on their way out, or take one up to their room if they're staying at the hotel. We'll ask the MC to remind people not to open them there. We will have free wine on the tables anyway!

That dress is super cute!!!!!!! I think it would be great for engagement pictures!

For our engagement pictures we were bundled up :) I wore skinny jeans with tall black mukluks, and a red sweater under a black dressy jacket. I think it was a mix of class and snow bunny lol.

I have no idea what I'm wearing for anything else yet! My shower and bachelorette party will probably be in late May or June so I haven't thought that far ahead :) Knowing my friends, they will probably buy me something outrageous to wear for the bachelorette party lol. I am kind of dreading that part because I get embarassed easily!

What are you guys doing for your midnight lunch? I love that idea. I think we are going to do something similar!

Aww your outfits sounds perfect!! I bet your pictures will come out great! Can't wait to see them!

We will have a buffet of buns, deli meats, pickles, cheese platter, and veggies and dip. The hotel is pretty strict about bringing in your own food, but they do allow us to supplement the midnight lunch with our own baking so I think some of Scott's family and maybe my grandma might make some little squares or cookies or whatever to go with it too :)

What the heck is a midnight lunch? Is that when you can have more food served at the end of the wedding? I am actually having a day wedding, so it's over by 4pm. We are going to break for awhile and then meet up at the wine bar or tavern on the premises. I told my fiance and other people, whatever we do... Im wearing my gown! LOL I never spent more money on 1 article of clothing, I plan on wearing it the full day until I drop of exhaustion! LOL

I am just bummed about my baby boys, they can't come to the hall and I won't see them. I'm trying to work out someone going to get them at our house (which is only 5 mins from the hall) so we can do some of the formal pictures with them in it. I REALLY want them to be part of our special day even if it's only for a few minutes.

As for other outfits... I didn't even think of that!!! Bachelorette party might just be jeans and a cute sparkly white top, its going to be still chilly out in early March in New Hampshire so I need to dress more warm, no dresses or tank tops or anything. Our rehearsal dinner is going to be only 20 of our immediately family & friends so I am not sure that we'll super dress up for it. I do want to get something decent for our jack & jill party though! Might have to shop for that one!

Yes, it's more food served later :) Around here, the norm is a full day wedding. We get ready in the morning, ceremony in early afternoon, pictures before dinner, and cocktail hour for guests. Then we make our grand entrance at the reception hall, the head table is introduced, we eat dinner around 6 pm, and then there are toasts, anything extra (we are doing a slideshow), first dance, and then party time all night :) We have a midnight lunch that comes out around 11:30. I am always so hungry by then and I always go back a few times to fill up my plate lol! Last call for drinks at our venue is 1 am I think, and the bar closes at 1:30. It's a loooooooooong day of celebration!

We have this little tradition, I'm not sure if it happens really anywhere outside of Saskatchewan lol, but the DJ plays the song "I Knew The Bride When She Used to Rock'n'Roll" and all the men form a circle around the bride and take turns dancing in the middle with her! It happens at every single wedding. I am not sure yet if I want it! I might be a little uncomfortable (I'm not good at being the center of attention!) but on the other hand, it's my day, and it might be fun! I'm sure it will be really nice to cut loose and stop caring about every little detail that night lol!

Oh my gosh! That is a LONG day! Kind of nice though, you truly get the whole day celebrating together with all your friends & family.
Over here in my neck of the woods, a modest wedding, which is what we are having is VERY expensive and usually most halls put a 5-6 hour cap on the time. We have the hall from 11am - 4pm. I am really bummed because the day will go something like 11:10am ceremony until 1130am, then 45 mins for pics for us and cocktail hour for guests. Then 1230 introductions into the dinner, first dances, then dinner at 1, cake cutting about 115, then dinner done by 230, then dancing only until 4. I really really wanted to get more time, but the hall won't do it. :( To get a couple more hours would have meant renting the hall for the rest of the night, then they make you book the rooms surrounding the hall since they can't use them because of the noise. Then the DJ is an additional $100 an hour! (I went into the wrong business I swear!) So for a moderate wedding like that, we are looking at $72 per guest for just dinner. $4 per guest for just dessert, we have a cash bar because we can't afford to pay for drinks for our guests, we have 75 guests and our wedding is around $15k! :( I wonder why weddings are decreasing, prices are too outrageous for anyone to afford in this economy! We estimated our favors cost about $4 per guest, not too bad.

Oh my goodness!!! I thought our wedding was expensive but it seems way more in your area! We have about the same budget as you do, for about 120-150 guests. My brother is using just a hall (as opposed to a hotel) for his wedding next year, and I think it's about $400 to rent for Saturday (all day) and an extra $200 or so to rent the Friday and Sunday so they can decorate the day before and clean up the day after. We just didn't want to deal with all the extras that come with that... a caterer, plates, cutlery, extra decor, etc.

We will get our hotel "ballroom" for all of Saturday. We will know two weeks before the wedding whether we are able to decorate Friday or Saturday morning. They told us usually decorating happens Friday, unless someone schedules another event that night, but it's rare. We do have to have the main stuff cleaned up and presents removed that night, but we get a complimentary gift opening room in the hotel the next day, so we can move them right to where they need to be. The other nice thing is the hotel does all the catering so we just have to choose our menu! And because we are paying per guest for the catering, we technically get the ballroom free for using their services, and we also get a complimentary honeymoon suite in the hotel that night with a Jacuzzi tub and chocolate covered strawberries and roses lol, and complimentary brunch for two in the morning :) Overall, it's a pretty good deal because we're not having to pay for all of that stuff extra if we wanted it!

We are doing a "Toonie bar" for drinks. For those who don't know, a toonie is our $2 coin lol. We are allowed to buy our own alcohol for the bar, as long as we don't charge more than $2 per drink. So we will sell drink tickets, and hopefully make back a good chunk of what we're spending on the drinks. If we used the hotel bar, they charged $5.25 per drink. But we can buy it cheaper than that, and we can take back any unopened cases and get our money back for them! We will pay hotel bartenders though instead of using our family for it.

Oh my gosh Linz!!! I've found NOTHING like that around here... NOW... keep in mind, I'm doing my wedding OFF season. The place that Im having it at, is usually $120-$165/pp, but because we are off-season, we get it for $55 a person, but then add tax & gratuity (which we pay) and it's $72 per person. There is a hotel in our venue, it's an Inn, and we are staying 2 nights which cost us $825 (not included, neither is any meals like breakfast the next morning). The room is just the room, no extras like roses or strawberries or anything. Also our reception room rental fee (even though they are catering the event also) is $750. Its all just nuts!!! We get nothing complimentary!! Crazy huh?

In NH you cannot bring in your own alcohol, so we are at their mercy, for functions, the drinks are typically $7-$8 each.... so we could not even have bought our guests 1 drink each w/o adding another $500+ to the bill. Isn't that nuts?

So our wedding is considered 'moderate' for this part of the country, but I guess lavish in other places. Its just nuts! Oh and if we had a night wedding and wanted midnight lunch catered, the hall does not do that, so an outside vendor would have cost us about $2500 for 75 guests.

Wow.... weddings are so costly! However, I'm sure that all your weddings will be fabulous and leave everyone feeling like it was a great day :thumbup:

OH MY GOODNESS!!! That is so crazy! When you're spending that kind of money it's ridiculous that they only let you in for a few hours. I guess they want to squeeze out every penny they can and then on to the next ones! Well I'm sure your day will be absolutely wonderful, and wherever you go after the hall will be lots of fun, especially if you stay in your dress!!! :)

We tried to do an "off season" winter wedding, but it turns out that is considered conference season, companies have conferences booked every weekend from November to April! I guess it keeps the hotels busy!

Love that dress! You're going to have so much fun with all of it!

Cuuuuuuuuuute! I love those owls!! I think coasters are a great favor. We got some from a wedding a couple of years ago and we still use them.

Awww... you know, I don't think our pups will get to be a part of our day either. Layla will be at the hotel (my parents will take a pet-friendly room to keep her with them, and they can express her when she needs it), but I'm not sure yet what we'll do with the other two. But with all the excitement of the day, I think they would prefer to be somewhere quiet anyway!

Love that! The owls are adorable.

We're not doing anything other than the ceremony and small reception after, either. This is my 2nd marriage so I am over all that anyway ;)

Don't feel bad. I really think that all the craziness would just make a small pup like that shut down anyway. The only reason we're going to have Oz around is that our ceremony and reception will be at our house. But I think Oz will be spending some quiet time in his playpen for at least part of the day so he doesn't get overwhelmed. The rest of the time I'm sure he'll be passed around to all his relatives. The morning after our wedding we'll be off to Vegas for a while, so his grandma is going to stay at our house and look after him... she can't wait, actually!

You aren't in NYC are you? If so, I could watch your lil pumpkin for you :D

Linz, you got 2 new pups??? I had no idea! YOrkies?

Roxiesmama - Those coasters are soooooo cute! I love them! What a great favor idea!

Baby Teddy - how nice of you to offer that! :) I just love YT... the outpouring of support and help is always there! :)

Yes, we adopted two more dogs from a rescue in December :) Lucy is a yorkie mix and Kash is a maltese mix. They are super close so we kept them together. Lucy is a senior, and Kash seems to be younger than Layla with his amount of energy! They are really great dogs though!

We decided on our table linens yesterday! What do you guys think? Our venue will supply the white tablecloth and a black overlay (the rental place didn't have a real overlay so they folded up a black tablecloth to look similar... at the venue it should cover the whole tabletop and a little down the sides). We will rent the table runners and black chair covers. Oh, and we will have round tables with seating for 8 at each table. The venue supplies white napkins and the plates and everything are white, so I think everything will look nice together!

That looks fantastic linz. Very classy and elegant.

Congrats on the new pups Linz! :)

I love the table colors & overlays, your colors together will be beautiful!!!

I wish we could have afforded them, but they wanted $5 a chair for covers and I have no idea about the table linens, but we decided to save the money and go with the standard white table clothes & napkins with no chair covers.

I'm anxiously awaiting a quote from the decorator we went to see last night. We're going with organza framing the fireplace, an arch with organza and flowers where we are going to stand, white chairs with organza tied into a bow on them, a couple of pots of flowers, and lots of candles, some with lilies in water under them. Then the floor runner going from the master bedroom to the arch. My colors are deep purple and light pink. I think I will get my own linens and napkins and will just set up food on our kitchen island (which is huge) and our dining table.

David thinks they are going to charge around $1k, but I'm thinking it should be under $400 since it's an 18 x 17 room with 14 chairs, and we are providing the arch (Michaels has them to buy regular price around $80, so if we can ACTUALLY USE a coupon, we're hoping to get one for $40ish).

Thanks!!

That is pretty expensive! Our chair covers are $2.50 each, and we wondered if we should try somewhere else. We went somewhere else and they wre $4 each so we're staying with what we've got lol! We didn't know we had the option of black overlays, but I really loved the black chair covers and we were going to add a white sash to tie them into the white tables. But now we can go without the sash... thank goodness because besides having to tie them by hand to every chair, they would cost an extra $200 ($1.25 each)! The rental place tried to persuade us to use colored napkins at 55 cents each, but we thought what's the point? It will look nice when people walk in, but they'll eat and the napkins will be on their laps, and then they'll get picked up later. We will just use the white ones we get for free!

We are also going to attempt to make our own backdrop for behind the head table. There are lots of instructions online to make them with pvc pipe. I can get some cheap curtains and lights behind it (either little spotlights, or net lights or something). We figure we could make one for under $150, or $200 max and then try to sell it later and make some money back.

I found a backdrop I loved at a rental place and they want $450-600 to rent it for the weekend!! There's no way I'm paying that! Lol. It should be easy enough to duplicate! Here's the one I like... We can tie up the black curtains with teal ribbon to bring in some color.

I think it should be well under $1k. We aren't renting chairs, but we are ordering linens and chair covers for 160 people and it's only costing us just over $400.

I think it's so great that you're using your house! The memory of your wedding will always be there :)

What was the problem with your Michaels coupon?

Michaels always seems to be a problem. If you forget the coupon, they will NOT give you one to use. When we got our invitation kit, I brought a coupon, but of course it wasn't good THAT day, it was for the next week, and we couldn't have used the 40% off coupon anyway because the kit was on sale for 25% off. So ya, I never seem to walk away from that store feeling good about any purchase.